


Rediscovery

by VampirePaladin



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle
Genre: Adventure, Canon Bridging, Exploration, Gen, Original Character(s), Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-26
Updated: 2013-06-26
Packaged: 2017-12-16 07:19:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/859411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampirePaladin/pseuds/VampirePaladin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cadance is on a journey to rediscover the ancient home of ponykind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rediscovery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kaesa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaesa/gifts).



Cadance stopped under an apple tree. She shrugged off her saddlebags and let them fall onto the springy grass. Pink wings flapped and lifted her up off of the ground. She grabbed a branch in her teeth and shook it. Four juicy, red apples and assorted leaves dropped to the ground. With a flutter she landed next to them and began munching. Cadance did have food in her bags, but why should she eat her provisions when there was something this delicious readily available.

After her lunch she nosed the flap of her saddlebag open. The map she needed was right on the top. She grabbed it between her teeth and set it on the ground and used a combination of teeth, wing and hoof to unfold it. Sometimes she wished she had been born a unicorn instead of a pegasus, this would be so much easier with magic. She consulted the map. It looked like she was right on course. Once her map was tucked away and her saddlebags safely on her back, she began trotting down the road.

The forest suddenly gave way to orchards full of apple trees. She was definitely heading in the right direction. The smell of apples in the air almost made her hungry again. If she got to Ponyville before nightfall she would have to treat herself to a large dinner.

When Cadance saw the red barn she lifted herself up into the air and flew over the tops of the rest of the trees instead of following the winding path. She landed delicately near the farmhouse. With one front hoof she knocked on the door.

“I’ll be right there,” a young voice called from within. The door opened. Standing there was an orange filly with yellow mane and tail. She had a smattering of freckles across her face.

“Hello, my name is Mi Amore Cadenza. Is this Sweet Apple Acres?”

“It sure is. My name is Applejack. It is mighty fine to meet you Me… My…Mi Amor-,” Applejack struggled to pronounce the name.

“Just Cadance is fine. I am looking for your mother or father. Are they home?”

“Ma and Pa ain’t never coming home. But Granny is in the fields. You can wait inside for her iffin’ you like.”

“Thank you, Applejack.” 

Cadance walked inside the open door as a foal began to cry. Applejack rushed over to a crib where the foal was screaming out her little lungs.

“There, there, sugar cube, your big sis is right here.” 

Cadance watched Applejack calm down the foal, change her diaper and prepare a bottle. She was so small and did not have magic or wings to help her, but she did everything with a practiced ease that said this was normal for her.

“Do you watch the foal all day?”

“Yep, Granny Smith and Big Mac are both lots bigger than me right now. So I watch Applebloom and do the housework while they’re out in the orchards.”

“You are a very helpful young filly.”

Cadance rested for a little while before getting to her hooves to help Applejack. It did not seem right to her for her to watch the younger filly work while she sat. Hours passed without Cadance noticing. When the front door opened she jumped in surprise.

“Eh, we have company?” an older mare with streaks of grey in her mane asked.

“Eyup,” the red stallion next to her said.

“Are you Granny Smith from the Apple family?”

“I sure as oats am.”

“My name is Mi Amore Cadenza. I came to ask you about one of your ancestors.”

“Well, just ask already, dearie,” Granny Smith said.

“Are you descended from the Applejack that went to Nightmare Castle?”

“Nightmare Castle? Aren’t you a little old to be believing in old pony tales?”

“I don’t think it is an old pony tale. I believe that ponykind really did make its first home in Dream Castle and I plan on finding it.”

“And why are you so interested in finding something like that?”

“Because I want to find the lost tribes of ponies: sea ponies, flutter ponies and the crystal ponies. The best place to start is at the very beginning.”

“Aren’t you ambitious? And why do you think I know anything? The Apple family is mighty big and we might not even be related to that mare.”

“I don’t know if you know anything. I am traveling from farm to farm asking at each homestead until I find the right one.”

Granny Smith eyed the young Pegasus critically. Her old mind was contemplating what she had been told.

“Alright,” Granny Smith said with a funny smile, “I like your persistence. Yes, according to family legend we are descended from that Applejack. It is a family name of sorts and every few generations we name a young filly after her.”

Cadance eagerly listened to everything Granny Smith had to say.

 

Cadance had spent the night in Ponyville. She had a late dinner as she compared her notes with her maps. One map was a normal one that any pony could buy. The other one was full of her own notations and markings. 

Before dawn she was stepping hoof out of town. It was not what one would call a beautiful day, but it was not a terribly bad one either. It was overcast and a chilly wind whipped her mane back and forth. A cozy scarf was looped around her neck.

“Now, I want to head south,” she said to herself. 

Cadance held her head up high when she entered the Everfree Forest.

 

The brambles tore at her pink coat. She shook her mane to free her hair from some branches that grabbed at them and threatened to hold fast. Things had not been so bad on the main path through the forest. That was before she had encountered no-magic crystals sticking up from the ground. 

No-magic crystals, despite their name, were absolutely full of magic. They got their name from drawing on the magic of living things around them. A small amount of crystal would have been no problem. These crystals towered over the Everfree Forest. When there was a gap in the branches overhead she could see them high up above. She did not dare to try to bypass them by flying. The wind was strong over the treetops and a good gale could blow her too close to them before she could correct. At this size they could easily drain any pony in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. Complete magic draining from any creature always resulted in death.

So that is how she found herself doing a detour that had taken four days so far. She was covered in mud up to and including her wings. It was all she could do to keep her wings up with the heavy mud matted between her feathers.

The howling started.

Cadance looked around, her eyes wide. She could not fly away. The howling sounded like it was coming from all around her. A fortunate breeze brought a scent to her. She could not tell exactly what it was, but there was one thing she did know for sure. She knew it was the scent of a predator.

With strength brought on by fear, she began to gallop. She tried not to look back as she heard another set of howls. They were following her. Her wings were tucked in close to her body. She dodged around trees and under fallen logs. Once, she was rewarded with the sound of pain as one of them crashed into the log she has barely squeezed under. She leapt over a row of bushes. There was no ground on the other side. She flapped her wings automatically as she started to fall. She was still flapping them when she hit the water.

Cadance gasped in one mouthful of air before her head sunk under the surface. She moved every limb she had, desperate to get back to air. Her lungs burned inside her. It was too much and her mouth opened and her lungs tried to breathe against her wishes. Cold water flowed in. Cadance still tried in vain to go up, but the current was too strong and the mud weighed her down too much. Her eyes begin to close.

She thought she could hear the song of angel ponies.

She was hearing singing! She forced her eyes open. Around her were creatures that were part pony and part fish. They were singing. They were the sea ponies! Three swam toward her, grabbed hold and began swimming for the surface. They helped Cadance to the river bank and pushed her onto land.

Cadance coughed and then started to vomit out water. The sea ponies patiently waited.

“Thank you for saving my life,” Cadance finally said.

“You are welcome. It has been a long time since we have been visited by anypony.”

“That is because a dangerous forest is around here. It is not safe for most ponies to go through.”

“Thank you for telling us. Can you take a message back to other ponies for us?”

“Of course I can, but I am on a journey right now and it would not get back until I am finished.”

“That is fine with us. Our message can wait a little longer to reach other ponies. What is your journey?”

“I am trying to find Dream Castle. It was the first home of ponykind and would prove that the old legends are true if I could discover it.”

A blue sea pony poked her head out of the water. “My name is Seaquest. I know where Dream Castle is.”

“You do?” Cadance asked excitedly. She lowered her front legs and her head was inches above the water, her mane dipped into it. “Please, can you take me there?”

“Since you are helping us, I will show you where it is. Follow me,” Seaquest said as she began swimming upstream.

Cadance followed, walking along the riverbank. Whenever the terrain was rough the sea pony would wait for Cadance to navigate the obstruction. At night they would rest. Seaquest would go under the water to sleep, leaving Cadance alone at her own little camp. She took advantage of the running water to clean the mud from her. The next day they made better time since she could fly over obstacles, but normally walked to save strength. It was on the third day that Cadance saw the ancient walls of a castle rise above the forest.

“Is that it?” Cadance asked.

“Yes, it is,” Seaquest said. “You can fly from here.”

“Thank you. What is the message you want me to take back?”

“There is a magical seal that prevents us from leaving these lands and waters for new ones. We need help to break it.”

“Alright, I will take your message straight to Princess Celestia as soon as I return to Canterlot.”

“Thank you.” Seaquest flipped a glowing seashell out of the water with one flipper. “If you ever need us again just throw this into the water.”

Cadance picked it up with her teeth and tossed it into her saddle bags. She said her goodbyes with Seaquest before she took off into the air.

The castle was just more and more amazing the closer she got to it. It looked like it was in almost perfect condition. That was impossible! The castle would have been abandoned hundreds of years ago, before even Princess Celestia would have been born. She flew over the walls and began to lower herself to the ground.

Something black shot itself at her. She only barely saw it in time. Cadance twisted in midair. The black substance, which looked almost like a black rainbow, went past her and up into the sky, where it crashed into a magical barrier. It started to double back at her.

“Hurry, this way,” a female voice cried out.

Cadance did not need any extra urging. She raced toward the voice. It had come from an open door. She flew in, not even bothering to land first. She crashed into an old fashioned bed as she heard the sound of a door slamming.

“Are you alright?” a blue pony, the only occupant of the stone room other than Cadance, asked.

“Yes, it was just my pride that was hurt,” Cadance joked as she got off the bed. “Who are you and what was that?”

“My name is Bowtie and that was the Rainbow of Darkness.” 

Bowtie has a sprinkling of freckles on her face. Her mane and tail were both pink. Her mane had a pair of yellow bows in them and her tail had a larger single one. Her cutie mark consisted of five pink bows.

“Wait, you can’t be THE Bowtie, can you? The one that went on the rescue mission to Nightmare Castle and helped stop Tirek.”

“I am. I never met you before. How do you know so much about me?”

“You are legendary! We still tell stories about you Firefly, Twilight and Applejack.”

“How long has it been outside the castle? Time doesn’t pass in here.”

Cadance’s excitement dimmed. “It has been hundreds of years.”

“So everypony I know is gone.”

“I’m so sorry. How did this happen?”

“When we confronted Tirek in his castle he released the Rainbow of Darkness. In response we released the Rainbow of Light. He was killed and we thought the Rainbow of Darkness was destroyed, but a small piece got away. It slowly grew and absorbed power until it was back at full strength. It found us and tried to turn everypony into demons.

“We had a new home by then, so we decided the old Dream Castle would be the best place to trap it, but we needed bait. I volunteered. Twilight enchanted a necklace so the wearer would radiate magic like a powerful unicorn. I led it in inside the walls and then all the unicorns united their power to create a spell that would trap it in here until we could figure out a way to destroy it. Time doesn’t pass here so that I wouldn’t feel how long it has been.”

“Well, we need to escape from here,” Cadance said.

“You can’t leave. If anypony leaves then the spell breaks and it will get out.”

Cadance paced back and forth. If the Rainbow of Darkness was released it could threaten all of Equestria. The sea ponies might not be able to escape from it with the seal keeping them from leaving the waters around here. There had to be a way.

“Bowtie, do you have then necklace?”

“I do.” She walked over to a table with a plain golden pendant on a chain. “This is it. Not much to look at it, but it works perfectly.”

Cadance pulled her saddle bags off and put them on the floor. She moved to the table and put on the necklace with help from her wings.

“There are maps in my bags. Once I leave use them to get to Ponyville. It is the nearest pony settlement. Then you need to go to Canterlot and gain an audience with Princess Celestia. Tell her that there are sea ponies trapped near here. A magic seal is preventing them from leaving.”

“What about you?”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan.” Cadance spread her wings. “Bowtie, open the door.”

Bowtie went back to the door and pulled the door open wide. Cadance ran out them, flapping her wings and taking off into the skies. It felt like breaking glass scratching against her body as she broke the magic barrier. She took a moment and oriented herself. She saw her goal and started flying toward it, putting all of her strength into flying. She was not holding anything back.

The Rainbow of Darkness still caught up with her. She could feel it encircle her. Her fur was being replaced with scales. Her hooves stretched out into claws. Cadance ignored it and kept flying. Her eyes were watering from the wind blowing into them.

As she flew toward the giant no-magic crystals she could feel magic being sucked out of her. Considering what she felt, the Rainbow of Darkness must be having it much worse. She was growing weaker; it was a struggle to keep her eyes open. She still flew. When her strength was almost gone she lowered her wings and entered into a dive aimed right at the base of the crystals.

Then there was darkness.

 

“Mi Amore Cadenza, you need to wake up.”

Cadance struggled to open her eyes. When she did she found herself snout to snout with Princess Celestia herself.

“Princess Celestia, where am I? What happened? The sea ponies and Bowtie, are they alright?”

“Calm down, yes, both the sea ponies and Bowtie are alright. The Rainbow of Darkness is gone and you are still alive.”

Cadance looked down. She was not sure she believed this, but she was definitely still flesh and blood.

“How is this possible?”

“The barrier around Dream Castle is what kept the sea ponies trapped. The second it was gone they began to explore and soon found a way to Canterlot. They told me that you saved them and another pony had brought you back to Dream Castle.”

Cadance looked around. The walls of the bedroom she was resting in did look a lot like the walls of the castle. Bowtie must have found her and brought her back.

“Oh, and there is one more thing,” Celestia said as she used magic to bring a hand mirror up for Cadance.

Cadance saw herself, but with a sparkly new horn perched on her head.

“I-I’m a princess?”

“Yes, your love for others and the strength you showed trying to save the sea ponies and your new friend along with the no-magic crystals expelling every drop of their gathered magic all at once have turned you into a princess.

“I know, why don’t you go outside and see your friends? When you are ready we can discuss magic lessons.”

Cadance was up and out of there. She moved as fast as she could, which right now was slower than a turtle with arthritis. She found Bowtie outside at the moat. She was talking to Seaquest.

“You’re alright!” both ponies cried out.

“Yes, thank you, both of you. Bowtie thank you for helping me while I was unconscious and Seaquest thank you and the other sea ponies for finding Princess Celestia.”

“What are you going to do now?” Seaquest asked.

“I am going to return to Canterlot for awhile. Maybe I’ll do something a little less exciting like foalsitting. What about you two?”

“The world is so much bigger than Dream Valley now. I want to see it,” Bowtie said.

“I am going to find the ocean and look for other sea ponies,” said Seaquest.

“Will either of you come see me in Canterlot?”

Both ponies grinned at her. They did not have to tell her that nothing could stop them. Cadance smiled back before returning inside to talk to Celestia about magic training.


End file.
